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Half Finished

I'm really loving the way this is turning out so far, it would be nice to get it completely finished this summer but good things take time! We can now sit on this and use it as it is.

I've used a combination of paints on this so far, all of the beautiful coloured pieces are Cuprinol Colours, the wood coloured ones are standard indoor wood varnish and the pretty patterned ones are decoupaged using tissue paper or napkins. There are also some natural, sanded wood ones there too. All pieces start off by being cut to size and sanded so they're nice and smooth with my trusted orbital sander.

These are the natural pieces, I picked out pieces that had beautiful grain and knotty bits to really show off the beauty of the wood. I sanded some pieces really smooth so you just see the wood grain. With the third one down I didn't sand it as much and left some of the saw marks to give it a lovely textured look. I sealed with exterior varnish and these were ready to go on!

These are some of the varnished pieces, I used standard indoor satin wood varnish as I'm sealing everything with exterior varnish later. Initially I sanded the wood with my orbital sander to give either a really smooth or textured finish (the middle piece), Then I applied a generous coat of the varnish and let it dry, I was lucky enough to be doing these pieces on a beautiful hot day so they dried nice and quickly!Once the varnish was dry I used the orbital sander again to bring out the grain and texture. I used 180 grit pads to give a really fine and smooth finish. Once I was happy with the result I wiped off the dust and gave each piece 2 coats of exterior varnish.

There is now a huge range of coloured exterior wood stain, I love the extensive range that Cuprinol have and these are the ones I've used here. Some of the pieces I just used tester pots as I had a load in the garage, they do go a long way if you're not looking for a solid colour finish like this. I've also started using Ronseal exterior colours as you can apply these to wood and metal, the range isn't as extensive as Cuprinol but they do have some great colours!

As with the varnished pieces I started off by sanded the pieces with the orbital sander. A generous coat of colour and it dried pretty quickly out in the sun. I used the orbital sander again until I like the look, wiped off and sealed with the exterior varnish. I'm planning on doing another coat of exterior varnish once everything has been screwed onto the frame.

The patterned pieces were slightly more time consuming but they were worth the work and look amazing! This look is so versatile and simple to achieve, it's definitely one of my favourite techniques from this summer. The hardest part of this was finding just a few patterns I loved, napkins and tissue paper come in so many different and beautiful patterns now!

For these pieces I sanded the wood so it was fairly smooth and then moved inside to do the messy work with the glue. With a previous piece I used this technique on I did it outside on a sunny day and the glue dried sooooo quickly that the paper didn't stick very well, it was a lesson well learned!!

I applied a layer of watered down PVA, I found this a much cheaper option for bigger projects. I applied the paper straight onto the glue and bushed it over with another layer of glue. and then left it to dry. I was quite happy to have wrinkles in the paper as it dried but if you want a really flush finish the put a layer of cling film over the top and then smooth it out, the cling film with help to smooth it out without ripping the wet paper.

If you are using napkins make sure you pull off the top layer and only use this one. If you apply all of the layers then is will not work and end up in a mess!Once the glue was fully dried (I left it overnight) i sanded to get the distressed look I was after. I used the orbital sander but it doesn't take very long at all to get the look so be careful! I sealed again with a couple of layers of exterior varnish.

I've still got to get all of the wood ready for the other side of the arms and think of something to do on the front of of the arms but it's ready for using just as it is. We'll be enjoying summer evenings on this with the chimnea going and enjoying a cold drink :)

Stripped down sofa

Well, after yesterday's work and shower I slept soundly! So soundly in fact I ignored my early alarm to get up before the kids and didn't get the early start I wanted to on the sofa. When I did get started at about 9am it was already 20 degrees, sunny Shropshire day indeed!!

I had to take a lot of breaks today to keep cool, the lovely breeze that usually blows through our garden was noticeable absent today. I think I've done pretty well to get this stripped down today, just a few stray staples left. Tomorrow will be spent putting a coat of wood preserver on this and then we can finally get down to the fun stuff!

Take a seat

A couple of days ago my sister calls me with the ominous question of "Are you busy?" I then spent the evening moving sofas around for her. I got an additional sofa for the living room and this one which I had my eye on for a garden project so I couldn't complain too much about it. It wasn't much fun with the heat though, her timing could have been better!

Today my son fell asleep on the sofa so me and my daughter got started on stripping this sofa down. With a screwdriver, a pair of pliers and a knife we set to work! It was a blinking hot day though so I'm quite pleased we managed to get as much done as we did in all honesty! It made quite a nice change to do the fun part of stripping this myself, usually Ben takes on these kind of man jobs that are really the fun parts of the projects!

I've definitely earned my shower tonight and I'm planning on an early start tomorrow to finish getting it stripped so we can start rebuilding it.

Although this is a personal project, it's very much in keeping with the love of Shropshire Garden Party and outdoor entertaining so I thought you'd enjoy to see it.

Beautiful Singer Legs

After the first attempt at just brushing the paint off with a wire brush Ben put these in stripper for a couple of days. The paint came off a lots easier this time although after a couple of hours my hands and back were aching and I needed a rest and some food. Ben has agreed to put these in stripper again over the weekend to help get the last few stubborn bits off so I can start painting them next week.

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Hello and welcome to our blog!

Have a read of our blog to see how our projects are getting on and see how much love we put into making and reviving some of the items that we hire out. We hope you enjoy what we're up to and reading about our journey.